Goa Forward’s (GF) recent views on the
expansion of coal handling at the Mormugao Port Trust (MPT) should be evaluated
with the party’s rhetoric of being a ‘regional party’. Surprising, some might
say, that a party that stood for Goemkarponn
is at odds with those who are desperately working to save Goa’s ecology. If
regional interests or Goemkarponn are
to be secured for the benefit of the local people, can national interests be
served at the same time? Though the backlash to the statements led to a retraction as far as
coal handling is concerned, nonetheless GF’s recent statements and their compromises on the
issue of nationalization of rivers should make us to introspect
and interrogate how national and regional interests operate.
Apart from the fact that national
interests have a flip side of making those who do not conform to these
interests as ‘anti-nationals’, terms like national interest are a curious way through
which protests are muzzled, especially those against the draconian policies of
the state. Often policies and projects carried out for the express purpose of
securing national interest benefit multinational corporations. National
interest further benefit persons of dominant caste and class groups or those
who enjoy the power given unto them by the state and the media, while the land
and resources of the poor and bahujan groups are appropriated wholesale.
Large-scale projects are not the
only way to observe the operation of national interests against regional ones. In
a curious way, we can see it operating in Goa’s language politics as well. By
making Nagri-scripted Konkani as one of the official languages of Goa, a
certain nationalist politics was put into play. The Roman-scripted Konkani and
those who demanded that it too be recognized as official were left out. Within
this nationalist politics it was not possible to recognize the Roman script because
the Roman script is allegedly foreign. Anything foreign is not Indian, and therefore
would not serve any national interests. Portuguese-inflected or -derived words
in Konkani had to be purged in favor of Sanskrit-derived vocabulary to make
Konkani more Indian and more national.
Linked to the politics of the
Konkani language and its official script is the Medium of Instruction (MoI)
issue. The demand for English, so the argument went, was anti-thetical
to Indian culture. Forcing children to study only in “regional languages”,
some believe, would instill national pride in the children of Goa. Vile
propaganda suggested that the MoI in English was a conspiracy to serve
‘Catholic interests’. It is, however, a different matter that those who are
demanding English as MoI are fed-up of the parochial language politics in Goa,
and see no future in the manner in which ‘regional languages’ are forced onto
the Goan public, more especially, on the poorer and bahujan sections who cannot
afford private English education. The bottom line is that through a narrow and
parochial politics, Goa’s elite classes are serving national interests that do
not see any merits in including all forms of cultures and linguistic
expressions. In fact one is expected to give up on certain practices if they do
not conform to the national standard.
During the press conference which received
a huge backlash, GF’s spokesperson Prashant Naik also made a sarcastic comment,
arguing that if there is an opposition to all development projects then all
Goans will have to “make the passport” and leave. Notwithstanding the blatant
illegalities of such development projects as well as the manner in which such
projects rob the people of Goa of their land and water, Naik’s seemingly off-the-cuff
statement reveals a deep-seated bias. Those who opt for a Portuguese passport
in order to have access to better employment opportunities, and in many ways to
escape the increasingly vitiated and stifling political atmosphere in Goa, are
seen as betraying the nation. They are viewed as having no loyalty to the
nation. By suggesting that there is a link between those who opt for Portuguese
citizenship and those who oppose mega-projects, Naik’s statement precisely
draws from a ‘nationalist’ discourse that has no regard for the problems and
difficulties of the people that drive migration.
Goa’s recent history is witness to
several protests that opposed the large-scale takeover by the central
governmental agencies and multinational corporations. At least from the 1980s
there have been protests against such polluting industries like the Zuari Agro
Chemicals, Nylon 6,6, Du Pont, Meta-Strips, the agitation against the Konkan
Railway, as well as the agitation against the setting up of the Special
Economic Zone, or the agitation led by the Ramponnkars, the traditional
fishermen to safeguard the interests of people in traditional occupations. The agitation
against evictions in Baina (in the garb of ‘cleaning’ the beaches of
prostitution and migrants) amongst several others should also be remembered
while the issue of MPT’s expansion is discussed. What this suggests is that in
its recent history Goa has witnessed spirited opposition against a form of
‘development’ that is a direct assault on the lives of people.
Claims of national interest should
be examined if they secure or deny rights to people, whether these rights are
legal, cultural, environmental or in any other sphere. The discussion of Goemkarponn, local interests, and
national interests should focus on the struggles in Goa’s recent history that
has somewhat restricted the march of developmental projects. This and other
instances such as the MoI issue wherein a large section of the people of Goa
mobilized to fulfill certain demands tell us that the people of Goa have put
local interests above so-called national ones. This is an important lesson to
remember.
(First published in O Heraldo, dt: 10 May, 2017)
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